The Postmodern Challenges in Chuck Palahniuk’s Prose

Abstract

Today, it would not be an exaggeration to say that Chuck Palahniuk is recognized as a literary genius, a hero for the generation of nihilists. Among the epithets used are: "king of countercultural prose", author of fascinating anti-social novels, cult author and a number of others. In this article, I comment on the profound connection between his philosophically insightful and abstract prose and the postmodern challenges that together lead him to reveal the deepest vices of the crisis-ridden contemporary American society. Palahniuk's postmodernism presents a generalized expression of modern man's disgust with the consumer society of crimes and injustices. He sees a way out only in individual anarchist rebellion, which rests on the denial of all false values.